Clark University announces the winner of the 2018 Michelson Playwriting Commission, awarded to a playwright of color and carrying with it a $2,000 prize. The winning play is also given a workshop production in the Michaelson Theatre. This year’s winner is Miranda Adekoje, for her play Shelter of Last Resort.

Miranda Adekoje is a writer for stage and screen, as well as an actress. Her other plays include 36 Days (Emerson College Student Workshop), The Strongest Shape (Paines Plough Future Perfect Finalist), Reply Please, Requests, and Sugar Moth. Her screen work includes Little Eyes (48-hour film festival semi-finalist), The Last Shot, and Red Monster. Shelter of Last Resort has been given staged readings at Company One Theatre and the Huntington Theatre Company.

Shelter of Last Resort is a dark Louisiana fugue that stretches from an antebellum plantation to the Superdome post-Katrina and chronicles the stories of the entitled, the enslaved and the innocent in a time-jumping narrative. The future entwines with the past creating a murderous current under which promises made and those betrayed are exposed and each soul searches for light amidst the rising water.

The Michelson Playwriting commission was established to further the careers of writers of color. Many theatres are hesitant to develop and produce new plays, and as such, colleges and universities must be generators of new works by supporting playwrights from a diverse range of backgrounds. Past winners of the award include Lenelle Moises (K.I.S.S.I.N.G) and John Adekoje (The American of Wisconsin).

Shelter of Last Resort will be given a workshop production from March 21-25 (2018) in Clark’s Michelson Theatre. The production will be directed by Shana Gozansky, whose work has been produced at Trinity Repertory Company, Boston Playwright’s Theatre, Central Square Theater, The Hangar Theatre, and The Calderwood Arts Pavilion. She is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab and is a Drama League Directing Fellow.

Auditions for Shelter of Last Resort will be held in January of 2018.